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SEOUL : North Korea said on Tuesday that work is under way to move funds and end a long-running banking dispute, marking concrete progress towards concluding a nuclear disarmament deal.
The Communist nation promised to start shutting down atomic plants under UN supervision as soon as its cash has been transferred.
"Work is currently under way to transfer our funds at Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macau to our bank accounts at a third country," said a foreign ministry spokesman quoted by the official (North) Korean Central News Agency.
"When the funds are transferred we are willing to take measures for suspending the operations at the nuclear facilities right away according to the February 13 agreement."
A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency would be immediately invited and "in-depth discussions with the US" about follow-up measures would begin, the spokesman said.
The dispute over US$25 million in North Korean accounts at BDA had blocked progress on February's six-nation deal, under which the North would disable its nuclear programmes in return for economic aid and diplomatic benefits.
The funds were frozen at US instigation in September 2005 on suspicion they were the proceeds of money-laundering and counterfeiting.
North Korea cited the BDA dispute as a reason to boycott the six-nation talks for more than a year, during which it tested an atomic bomb.
In an attempt to move the nuclear pact forward, Washington announced in March that the funds had been unfrozen. But foreign banks have since been unwilling to handle cash seen as tainted.
There was no indication in the report of how the transfer was being made or when it would be completed. But the communist state made it clear the dispute was not just about the BDA cash.
"To make the money transfer possible freely just like before has been our demand...from the beginning," the spokesman said.
The US Treasury's blacklisting of BDA prompted a series of other banks in the region to cut ties with Pyongyang - effectively cutting off the North from the international banking system and making even legitimate transactions impossible.
The United States last week indicated it would consider allowing North Korea to transfer the funds from Macau to an account in a US bank in an attempt to end the nagging dispute.
As a first step under the February accord the North was to shut down its Yongbyon reactor, which produces the raw material for plutonium to make weapons, in the presence of UN inspectors in exchange for 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil to be supplied by South Korea.
The April 14 dateline for that shutdown came and went amid the apparently intractable financial dispute.
Under the next phase the North should declare and disable all its nuclear programmes in return for another 950,000 tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid.
In return, the US will consider removing Pyongyang from its list of terrorist states and talks will begin on establishing diplomatic relations and drawing up a permanent peace treaty on the peninsula. - AFP/de
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